The eight-member council of the ruling and opposition parties that discussed the amendment to the Media Arbitration Act did not reach an agreement even at the last meeting. If the Democratic Party proposes the Media Arbitration Act to the National Assembly plenary session tomorrow (27th) as predicted, a head-on clash between the ruling and opposition parties is expected.
Correspondent Koh Ji-hyun.
Even after 11 meetings, the conclusion was that it failed to reach an agreement.
The Democrats shouted in favor of the introduction of the punitive damages system and the right to block article reading, which are key issues, while the people’s power was against it.
[김종민/민주당 의원 : 징벌적 (손해)배상 반대한다 이거는 알겠어요. 그럼 그거 말고 피해 구제하고 언론의 불신, 해결하는 대안이 뭐냐.]
[전주혜/국민의힘 의원 : 징벌적 손해배상 제도가 결국은 위헌이기 때문입니다. 폐기하는 것이 정답입니다.]
The eight-member council was eventually disbanded without resolving differences and passed the ball to the floor leadership.
Democrats have already made their own amendments.
The amount of punitive damages has been reduced from a maximum of 5 times to 3 times the amount of damages, and the subject of the right to block viewing, which prevents the exposure of portal articles, has been reduced to cases in which key areas of privacy are infringed.
In addition, the provision of presumed intentional and gross negligence, which is the basis for punitive damages, was also deleted, but instead the phrase ‘untruthful reporting’ was added, which was rather controversial.
Given that the Democratic Party has been working on an agreement for a month, the amendment can be presented at the plenary session tomorrow as previously announced.
In this case, the power of the people may again fall into a state of extreme confrontation with the National Assembly, such as applying for unlimited debate, that is, a filibuster.
However, as the international community’s successive criticism and President Moon Jae-in recently expressed his opinion that “a sufficient review is necessary”, there is also an analysis that the leadership of the ruling and opposition parties will have more time to discuss.
(Video coverage: Park Jin-ho, video editing: Choi Hye-young)
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